Sunday, October 16, 2011

Traversing the Silk Road (IV)

Day 7: Urumqi >>> Lanzhou

The next day, we got up early to go to the local Red Mountain Park and there we can see the whole city.


Then we made our way to the Grand Bazaar, but there, my mom spotted a Carrefour across the road, and we ended up buying all our gifts for relatives from there. Well, my mom's right, the bazaar and a lot of the tourist souvenir places they over price things, and the items are actually not that nice - food wise, as they all say they don't have preservatives, or are all natural. But remember, these things are sold to tourists, who are not always the wisest when they are told they are getting a bargain, and also very unlikely to return if the goods are discovered to be bad quality.

So we ended up shopping in Carrefour for dried beef and lamb jerky, as well as all the different kinds of dried raisins and nuts. We also bought some spices that they use to grill lamb skewers with.

After lunch, we made our way to the airport to fly back to Lanzhou.


Day 8: Lanzhou >>> Hong Kong

Nothing much happened on the last day, just flew back.

On this trip, we got to know some of our fellow group members, and there was one pair that was particularly interesting. They are a pair of friends who have known each other since before they were even born. They grew up together and now travel together. One lives in San Francisco and the other lives in Hong Kong. One is quiet and reserved and the other is outgoing and loves to talk. They even shared stories of about their family - well mainly the outgoing one did. Her family used to own pawn shops and they had lots of interesting things pawned. People even pawned their blankets and shoes in the old days.

Seeing these two grannies, I hope that I'm as lucky as they are and will have other granny friends growing old with me when I'm their age.

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